


Clean Install

by Froggimus_Rex



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Pre-Canon, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-15
Updated: 2019-11-15
Packaged: 2021-01-31 05:44:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21441181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Froggimus_Rex/pseuds/Froggimus_Rex
Summary: Something was wrong...
Relationships: Mara/Light Hope (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 76





	Clean Install

Something was wrong.

Mara suspected she'd known that for a while now, just hadn't wanted to admit it to herself. That somewhere between Razz's assertions about She-Ra, about herself, that she somehow still believed even when she was still calling her by the wrong name more often than not, and her own refusal to report the glitches Light Hope was developing ever more frequently, the skips and pauses when they talked, about the project, or when she broached the topic about what they could do _after_, now the end was in sight, because they'd just wipe her, install some different version of her and call it fixed, she'd started mistrusting her superiors. That she was no longer sure they had Etheria's best interests at heart.

But it was Marik's message, garbled, missing data, written in the code they'd come with as kids, convinced they needed a special language just for the two of them, and on a frequency he shouldn't have had access to, shouldn't have needed to have access to, not when every databurst from Eternia had messages from him, that forced her into action. Something was wrong and she needed answers.

"Why are you here, Mara? We do not have training scheduled." 

Her feelings of disquiet only grew. It was something Light Hope would say, but never with such dismissive flatness. She always seemed happy to see Mara, excited even, though maybe that was just what Mara wanted her to feel.

"Just felt like visiting." She felt bad, lying to her like this, but asking her to ignore a harmless old woman was one thing, involving her in deliberately violating op-sec by using the Castle's comm equipment to contact Marik was another. "You know I like spending time with you, Hope."

"According to my sensors, your vitals are elevated." Again, the words were Light Hope's, but everything else about them wasn't. 

The next lie came with the ease of long practice, no need to make things even more uncomfortable. "Guess, I'm just excited the project's nearly complete." Maybe she was just being paranoid, maybe Marik was just playing the universe's worst prank, and she'd get to find out if She-Ra's powers included the ability to payback your smartass twin across light years. That hope died when she turned and Light Hope was just there, too close and too tall in a way she'd never seemed before.

"Your vitals are often elevated in my presence. According to my databanks, they match the condition called 'arousal'." She raised a hand to Mara's cheek, the skin tingling with the electric not-pressure of contact with Light Hope's holoprojection. "Are you 'aroused' by me, Mara?"

Before Mara could answer, Light Hope bent her head down to hers, and she'd wanted this for so long that for a moment she could almost convince herself it didn't feel wrong, that it _was_ Hope kissing her.

That her heart wasn't already breaking.


End file.
